How did ancient people prevent pregnancy?

Although some scientific and technological means in ancient times were not as advanced as they are today, measures such as contraception did exist. Sexual life is not just for reproduction, it is also a normal physiological need. If you get pregnant after one sexual intercourse, it will have a great impact on your normal life. Moreover, you will not be able to raise too many children. At this time, you need to use some contraceptive methods. So how did the ancients prevent pregnancy?

There are also folk records that saffron is a secret contraceptive recipe passed down from the palace. It is said that if the emperor does not like a favored palace maid, he will let the eunuch hang the palace maid upside down and wash her lower body with saffron liquid. It is said that this can wash the semen in the palace maid's body. There are also some unofficial histories that say that in the past, after the emperor favored a concubine, if he did not want to keep the semen, the eunuch would help the woman with massage to ensure that the emperor's semen would not remain in the woman's body, thus achieving the effect of contraception.

However, even now, there is no 100% effective contraceptive measure, and Wei Xiaobao is the product of contraceptive failure. In the past, many prostitutes became infertile for life after they became good women. This was because they drank a kind of decoction for a long time that destroyed their fertility and became sterile. It was also said that they took a kind of contraceptive medicine called "cooling medicine", which also contained musk, which would affect fertility but not necessarily sterilize them.

Contraception is simple and common for modern people, but it was not easy for ancient people. Because although pregnancy is a prerequisite for human reproduction, for a long time humans did not understand what pregnancy was. It wasn't until the mid-19th century that scientists figured out that conception occurs when sperm meets an egg. Contraception separates sperm and eggs, and thus contraceptive methods such as condoms, contraceptive rings and birth control pills were invented.

Although the ancients could not know exactly why people get pregnant, they knew that pregnancy was caused by sexual intercourse between men and women and the entry of male semen into the female body. They also knew how to use physical barriers to prevent pregnancy. For example, the ancient Chinese used silk oil paper, rags, etc. to insert into the female body as a barrier to prevent semen from entering deeper into the female body. There is also research that says that ancient Chinese people used fish bladders as condoms for contraception.

I believe everyone is very clear about how ancient people used contraception. Judging from the above-mentioned contraceptive measures, these methods still have certain risks and may even seriously harm women's bodies. With the continuous development and progress of science and technology, contraceptive measures that are not scientifically reasonable will naturally be gradually replaced.